August 2022-NEWS and Zoom Meetings of Interest |
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Community involvement is at the heart of what we are trying to do. With that said, check out the news and dates for meetings that may be of interest to you below. |
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WHAT'S GOING ON IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD National Night out at Poinsettia Park Temporary Road Diverters Installed on Willoughby ~ Revisiting the Goal. Questions to be asked Playground Fire at Pan Pacific Park TVC2050 Plan moving forward with DEIR report
Zoom meeting dates, times and links: Melrose Action & Melrose BID Crime Meeting Mid-City West Board Meetings dates and times C-PAB. Community Police Advisory Board meeting
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Tuesday Night is National Night Out ~ Aug 2nd from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. |
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Tuesday August 2nd is National Night Out! The annual event is once again co-sponsored by Melrose Action in collaboration with our Wilshire LAPD Department and our Council Office. Meet your neighbors, meet the men and woman who help keep our area safe, grab some great free food and see the exhibits set up by several local businesses. It's only 2 hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and this is our community event. We look forward to this neighborhood get together every year and hope to see you there too. |
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Temporary Road Diverters ~ Revisiting the Goal & Questions to be Asked |
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Most of you have already seen, heard or have been in the middle of this controversy. Previous articles we have written seem to indicate that the reason for the project was to divert traffic to Melrose, but that was not the intention. Supposedly, it was to make Willoughby a safer, more walkable street, per the postcard sent out to local residents. As Waring residents are now finding out, we are receiving the brunt of the Ogden diversion with more cars and trucks and fewer bike riders and a less "calm" street. Here's the questions my neighbors and I would like anwers to: How have any of the "improvements" that have been installed actually make anything better for pedestrians or bicyclists? The circle at Curson actually diverts traffic into the pedestrian crossing path because the circle is too large for the width of the intersection.
What is the point of diverting eastbound traffic down Ogden, when the result is that cars go along Waring for a block or so and then head back up to Willougby? (which is what we have seen happening as we walk). Why divert traffic to multiple other residential blocks (and towards Melrose no less) to stop traffic on one or maybe two blocks of Willoughby? Many cars and most bicycles continue to ignore the STOP signs. Would flashing lights at the STOP signs have more effect at traffic calming? The sidewalks on the L.A. side of Willoughby need to be fixed if pedestrian safety is the goal. They are dangerous from Spaulding to Genessee & several other blocks as well. Are we the only one who noticed this? It should also be mentioned that the bollards that were recently added at Ogden and at Spaulding are now getting destroyed by delivery trucks too.
One of our admins commented, "As a pedestrian, nothing that has been done makes me feel any safer & I haven't noticed more bikes." Several of us actually walked along Romaine the other evening and were surprised to see quite a few bikes using that street. We can only wonder why Romaine is not being considered as the preferred street for bicycle riders. Info from the City of West Hollywood: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
Upcoming Virtual Workshops to provide Community Feedback: A workshop for the community to provide feedback about the three temporary installations in an effort to inform the final recommendations and decisions for a safer Willoughby in the future. August 25th: 5:30 p.m. Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErduGhrToqG9LPx3YnL4qizymBv2jncwb6
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. and
August 27th: 9:30 a.m. Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrc-2uqToiE9O6cO3sEweHGMHjEGVAyEcZ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. CONTACT:
Bob Cheung, bcheung@weho.org or 323-848-6346 |
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Someone got $200,000 for submitting the plan, according to the RFP (Request for Proposal) drawn up in 2018. You can TEXT your input to show you are against the Odgen diverter element of the project by following the instructions below: Your input is vital to this street design project and may influence the types of permanent installations that are installed in the future. To submit input text the following to (844) 300-1624: "I do not like the Diverter at Ogden/Willoughby" - Text "B" Additional Feedback? To provide additional written feedback to staff, click here to submit your comments. Here's the original postcard most of us received in the mail: |
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Playground Fire at Pan Pacific Park |
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Around 12:30 a.m. on July 12th someone set fire to the young childrens playground at Pan Pacific Park. Eric Calhoun, Director of Pan Pacific Park, spoke and answered neighborhood questions at the SRE neighborhood council meeting on July 26th. Although there have been reports in the press that the fire may have been set by someone using an accelerant, no concrete leads as to who the arsonist is have materialized yet. When asked if there were signs of this being a hate crime or gang related, Mr. Calhoun dismissed the possibility saying he's seen gang graffiti in the park before along with hate crimes and nothing about this fire showed signs of either being the case. Evidence is pointing to a man who has set fire to other things in the park before. This suspect has also acted violently and has hurt several people on various occasions. He is wanted by the police for questioning. All evidence so far is circumstantial. Photos of the damage and more extensive articles can be found at either the Lachmont Buzz or the Beverly Press. Larchmont Buzz article link Beverly Press article link |
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TVC2050 Plan - CBS Television Studio's revitalization plan. |
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On Monday July 18th the MCW PLUC committee heard a presentation from a group from Hackman Capital Partners, including the principal and CEO Mr. Hackman on their plans for CBS Televison City at Beverly & Fairfax. The plan called TVC2050 is extremely detailed to include expansion of the studios to make it into a world class media center, transportation, jobs & a very robust job training program call “Changing Lenses”. One of our admins, Shelby Blecker, spoke in favor of the plan citing the need for high paying jobs in the neighborhood that came with health care and pensions. The plan also includes the preservation of the culturally historic entrance to the studio face. What was very curious to hear at the PLUC meeting were comments from staff at AF Gilmore Company, the land owner of The Farmers Market, The Grove and of TV City. They all spoke out against this plan with several claims that were all corrected by the team from HackmanCP. Gilmore reps claimed the project was requesting a doubling of land use, it’s actually only about 10% increase to what was allowed, then they spoke of 20 story buildings in the plan, they are only planned for 15 stories. Then another member of the public spoke up in favor of the plan and finished his comments by saying hearing AF Gilmore talk about the “overbuilding” of this plan was total hypocrasy considering all the other projects that AF Gilmore has allowed to be built over the years. Where was AF Gilmore during the new plans for redevelopment of Town & Country? What about the empty office space that sits across the street on Fairfax? Something here just doesn’t seem kosher! The recording of MCW PLUC meeting was broken into two pieces. Click HERE for a link to the 2nd part of the meeting. If you would like to read through the Draft Environment Impact Report (DEIR), you can click HERE to be brough to the L.A. City Planning Page Another well attended neighborhood meeting with TVC2050 and the Melrose BID took place again on Friday July 22nd. TVC2050 is really showing they want to engage with everyone in our neighborhood in order to discuss concerns and share the vision of what this project can bring to our area. |
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Stop the Bleed - If your child cuts their hand on glass, do you know what to do? |
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We need a few more people interested in attending this workshop in order to get it scheduled. Do you know what to do if your child, spouse or partner is bleeding? A bad cut could happen from something as simple as getting injured from broken glass to something as serious as a knife wound or worse. The 2 hour class will teach you techniques on what to do in order to quickly Stop the Bleed and maybe even save a life! The Magen Am non-profit group works with emergency responders to bring you this course. Let us know if this is something you'd like to learn more about. Drop us an email with your name and contact info and we will pass this on to Magen Am to contact you with details. STOP THE BLEED® is a national campaign to encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives. It is a public/private partnership led by the Department of Defense and many other stakeholders. Here's a link to more information about how Stop the Bleed courses help with a layperson's willingness to respond during a traumatic medical emergency. |
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WATER RESTRICTIONS ARE NOW IN PLACE IN OUR AREA! Click on the image below for more details from the LADWP |
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MELROSE VILLAGE Wednesday Walks Would you like to meet some of your neighbors? Maybe you want to get off the couch and improve your cardiovascular health. Maybe you would just like to feel safe with a group walking our neighborhood. We'd like to make this happen! Typically we are joined by a member of the LAPD and Jill Kline from Councilmember Koretz's office who are there to meet the community, answer questions and talk about what concerns us. Regardless if you want to walk 1 block or 1 mile, it's up to you. We want to make this an enjoyable and no stress walk so we will start with a walk down Waring beginning at Spaulding and head in a different direction each week. The route is planned on Tuesday and you can email us for details. You can join in at any location on the route or meet at Spaulding and Waring at our start time of 6:30 p.m. Anyone is welcome to join the fun and feel free to bring your dogs, children, parents, opinions and concerns. If the group wants to walk further, we can extend this in any direction after we circle back to the starting point. (As with any type of exercise, consult your physician before to make sure this is the right thing for you to be doing.) Last year, we even made the CBS local news! The video link is below. |
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Mid City West Neighborhood Council & Melrose BID Meetings: |
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Melrose BID Crime Prevention MeetingThis meeting is combined with the Melrose Action Monthly Crime Meeting. It is on the 1st Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. You need to email kim@urbanlegendpr.com to get on the list and receive the zoom link details. This is an opportunity to speak directly to the people who help shape Melrose Ave. Get on the list! |
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We have brought this up before, but feel it's worth mentioning again... What brought you to sign up for our newsletters? We want to believe it is because you wish to learn what's going on and to participate in advocating for a safer and cleaner neighborhood. Most of you who receive this email live in Zone 2 or are affected by what happens on Melrose. This newsletter contains links to the meetings to sign up for the Melrose BID Crime meeting, most of the Mid City West Neighborhood Council meetings and the LAPD C-PAB meeting. Here's the important part: Neither the Melrose Bid or the MCWNC meetings have neighbors, referred to as 'stakeholders', attend very often. Most of the sub-committees for MCWNC have NO 'stakeholders' attend. So what happens when elected representatives get no input from those they are voted to represent? They go off and turn their attention to their own pet projects instead of advocating for the people and the neighborhoods they serve! So PLEASE get involved! If you find a meeting topic in the list above that you are interested in and if you can attend just ONE meeting to make a comment or offer support to someone making comment, it will make a difference! Tell them you are part of The Melrose Village Neighborhood Alliance! |
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C-PAB (Community - Police Advisory Board) |
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Thursday Aug 18 at 7:00 p.m. This is a great place to listen to your police officers discussing issues with the community advisory board. You may even be given the chance to raise your hand and speak on an issue. | | |
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If you would like to help us with the newsletter, write an article or comment on our newsletters, LET US KNOW! This is a community effort! |
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